Ben Keith and Jacqueline Jahnel write for Verfassungsblog | How Belarus Turns Police Cooperation Into A Tool Of Transnational Repression

In an article for Verfassungsblog, Ben Keith and Jacqueline Jahnel analyse how Belarus is systematically misusing Interpol’s mechanisms to pursue critics and dissidents across European borders, turning international police cooperation into an instrument of transnational repression.

By reframing political persecution as ordinary crimes and imposing data-access restrictions, Minsk causes detentions, travel delays, and sustained fear among exiles, even when courts refuse extradition. The situation highlights deep vulnerabilities in international policing systems built on mutual trust and underscores the need for stronger safeguards against politically motivated notices.

A stark example is the case of Belarusian filmmaker and activist Andrei Hnyot, who was detained in Serbia in October 2023 on the basis of a Belarus-issued Red Notice alleging tax offences. Despite strong evidence of political motivation and international pressure, Hnyot remained in detention for over a year before his release. His case reflects a broader pattern in which political persecution is repackaged as ordinary criminal law enforcement.

This creates serious problems for European cooperation systems, which are built on mutual confidence in rule-of-law standards. Authorities must reconcile policing obligations with binding human-rights protections, including the prohibition on refoulement under European law. Courts may ultimately block extradition, but the harm is often already done.

Belarus has also used Interpol’s data-restriction tools to limit access to Red Notice information, preventing individuals and their lawyers from seeing or challenging the allegations against them. This undermines the effectiveness of appeals before Interpol’s Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files and delays meaningful legal challenges at the national level.

While EU institutions and courts increasingly acknowledge these risks, case-by-case responses cannot address a structural problem. Even when notices are later withdrawn, or extradition refused, individuals may face repeated detentions, travel restrictions, and long-term reputational damage in national databases.

The article argues for stronger preventive safeguards, including enhanced scrutiny of alerts from states with systemic rule-of-law failures, better risk-flagging within shared databases, faster access to legal remedies, and greater transparency in Interpol’s review procedures.

Without such reforms, international policing systems designed to promote cooperation and security risk becoming conduits for authoritarian repression,  undermining both human rights and the credibility of global law-enforcement cooperation.

The full analysis was first published on Verfassungsblog and can be read here.

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